Shootin' Guns and Stuff

Despite the fact that guns are illegal in Korea for non-military citizens, there are gun ranges here. Which is something I delightfully discovered when I opted out of ziplining during a trip due to my completely irrational fear of heights.

I'm glad I did, because it was tons of fun shooting a hand gun for the first time and trying my aim at an air gun. I now completely understand why people think BB guns are so fun!

They were extremely safety-conscious, and it seemed like it was virtually impossible for there to be any sort of accident in which someone got hurt.

A posting of the rules.
Basically, don't touch other people's guns
and don't point yours at people.

I have no idea why, but the are where you could shoot clay pigeons was called the "American Trap".

Boom, tickets to shoot guns!
('Murica!)

The official office where we purchased our tickets.

TONS of spent cartridges.

This was the hand gun shooting area. For a pretty small fee, we each got ten shots. The gun was in a harness, so it was basically hanging there the whole time and gave us no chance to accidentally point it someone. An instructor stood next to me as I shot, and cocked the gun for me and gave me some pointers on aiming.

I hit the target with all ten bullets, so apparently I am an amazing shot. I had 63 out of a possible 100 points, so not too shabby!

Charles and his target.

Katie and her target.

Posing with my target in front of the window
so you can see how awesome my shots were.

 Charles at the air gun range. This part was huge. There were tons of targets, but unfortunately they were only using about 10 of them so it took a while to actually get to shoot.

Once you shot one of the little pellets, you could hit a button and the target traveled down the wire to you so you could adjust your shot. This was pretty sweet, and it was fun to be able to adjust your aim using a close-up view of what you were shooting at.

Below is a picture of Katie and I posing with our targets under the cherry tree. I had told everyone I wanted a picture with our targets under this cherry tree because of "the juxtaposition with the beauty and the violence of having just shot guns" and I still haven't heard the end of it. I still think it's a great photo, despite the haters.

The shooting range was located in an absolutely gorgeous area. It was set in the midst of some mountains, and it being high cherry blossom season, the trees were all in full, impressive bloom. I took more than a few awesome nature photos here.

Gam Wine Tunnel

On one of the trips I took with WinK, we stopped at a beautiful wine cellar tunnel in Cheongdo.  It tunnel was gorgeous. Lined with empty wine bottles and featuring many brightly lit wine-related exhibits, it has a very unique feel.

The wine cellar opened its doors in 2006, and its claim to fame is being the world's FIRST persimmon wine cellar. Located in the middle of a mountain, it is an impressive 1,000 meters long. It maintains a constant temperature of about 60* Fahrenheit (15* Celsius).

The picture to the left is the entrance to the tunnel, complete with a persimmon sculpture.

The tunnel was originally named Namseonghyeon Tunnel, and it was built in 1898 during the Joseon Dynasty as a railroad tunnel. Its original structure was altered about a hundred years ago when persimmon growers put red bricks in the ceiling, reinforced the tunnel walls with natural stone, and turned the railroad tunnel into a fantastic place to store wine.

Lighted canopy above the picnic tables that served as a cafe
in which to enjoy your glass of wine.

The winery exclusively features persimmon wine, which is made through fermenting seedless persimmons. Many cities in Korea have a special regional delicacy, famous mountain, or time-honored tradition, and Cheongdo is no different. This city's pride and joy is the persimmon, or gam, which is why the cellar holds exclusively persimmon wine.

In addition to racks upon racks of wine bottles, the cellar also has exhibitions, wine sampling, and a wine market where you can purchase glasses of wine to enjoy right away. The persimmon was was good, but strangely tart and sweet at the same time. There is also a gift shop that features persimmon goods such as lotion and chocolate made with this interesting fruit.

They also had these fantastic cardboard cutouts for photo ops.
Which, of course, I had to take advantage of.

The tunnel itself was beautiful, but the walk to it was also quite scenic. Coming from Wisconsin, for some reasons mountains and the majestic views they afford never cease to amaze me. I can't stop taking pictures of them, even though they are absolutely everywhere and their novelty should have worn off by now! But seriously, check out these pictures and tell me my fascination isn't warranted.

Wolchulsan National Park

Oofta, it's been quite a while since I posted anything new. It's so easy to get caught up in the fast pace of Korea. Time flies here--I've been here just over six months, but it feels like I've only been here for two weeks. I hate to employ such a cliche, but time flies when you're having fun, I guess.

A few weeks ago, I went on a fantastic trip with a group called When in Korea, or WinK for short. One of the things we did in our action-packed weekend was hike Mt. Wolchulsan to watch the sunrise from the cloud bridge.  The name Wolchulsan means "mountain where the moon rises". Below is where it's located on a map of Korea--for reference, I'm located much farther north, a tiny bit south of Seoul. It was quite a long bus ride.

The hike was absolutely beautiful. I almost went all the way to the cloud bridge, but my fear of heights kicked in and I decided the cloud bridge would probably not be the best thing. We did catch the sunrise from a pretty nice height, though.

It was about five in the morning when we arrived at the park. It was completely dark, which made the hike a bit treacherous. It was an interesting journey, including giant boulders, a few tiny waterfalls, and tons of stairs. It was an absolutely gorgeous walking up, and it was fantastic to see the sun slowly rising and illuminating the path. 

View of Wolchulsan from the entrance.

The fantastic thing about not staying at the top for the sunrise is that we had a bit of extra time before the rest of the people walked back down. We discovered a park filled with statues on the way down, and stopped to take tons of pictures.

 

I just wanted to get in on the secrete the ajummas were sharing...

The initial road leading up the mountain.

I absolutely love seeing these around. Stone piles have a particular meaning in Buddhism. They are quite common in spiritual places. There are usually small, round stones on the bottom that decrease in size as they go up. They usually represent Buddhist prayers, or people make them with a wish in mind. I saw many of them at Seonamsa, a Buddhist temple I visited, and they seem to be quite common near mountains as well.